1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern recognition system for handling an image of a DNA microarray and particularly relates to an image analysis system for a Stanford type microarray having a plurality of blocked spots.
2. Background Art
Stanford type microarrays are available which have a plurality of blocked spots. For example, one microarray has 4×8 blocks each of which is constituted of X×Y spots. After a specimen is brought into contact with the microarray, a fluorescent intensity of each spot is optically measured. In the optical measurements, each spot is divided into N×M pixels and the pixels are sequentially or simultaneously measured. Since a quite a number of measurements are performed with a massive amount of data, microarray image analysis systems are developed to perform statistical analysis on obtained data.
For example, as to automatic recognition of the position and size of a spot in a microarray, a filtering system described in JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-189026 is known. The system described in the document performs processing such as filtering, segmentation, and morphological operation during an automatic analysis on an image of a microarray and the like so that useful information is separated from various noise sources causing an erroneous interpretation.
As described in the document, the system automatically recognizing the position and size of a spot after filtering is available. However, a flag is manually set by changing the status of a spot lacking reproducibility and quantitativeness. The flag is set to remove the spot in the subsequent data analysis.
An example of a spot lacking reproducibility and quantitativeness includes a spot with dirt, a damaged spot, and a doughnut-shaped spot. A similar status needs to be set for a spot symmetrical with respect to the center of a spot region.
Further, according to the characteristic of a method of producing a microarray, spots having similar spot coordinates in a block are prone to have similar statuses.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for semi-automatically setting a flag on a spot. The flag is manually set by the user at present.